A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1966-1967 (Debrecen, 1968)

Mesterházy Károly: Adatok a honfoglalás kori magyar köznépi család szerkezetéhez

II The patrilinear joint family, Group one The analysis from the social point of view of the relics of the conquering Magyars was started by Gyula László. On the basis of the method developed by him for analysing the maps of cemeteries, he succeeded in determining the joint-family structure of part of the conquering Magyars, the wealthiest and highestranking stratum as appears from the finds. In this type of family, evidence of descent was kept only on the father's line. In the patrilinear joint family it was always the male members that remained within the family bond

; the women moved to their husbands to other joint families. The picture of the patrilinear joint family is best reflected by the family structure of the nomads living in the puszta. Gy. László compared carefully the structure of the cemeteries studied by him (Kenézlő, Bezdéd, Eperjeske, Gádoros etc.) with the joint-family patterns of various Finno-Ugrian, Turkish and Mongolian peoples, and in this way it was possible to fully reconstruct this form of the joint family. He found that three types are distinguishable in the system of burials. The basic cemeteries of these three types are Bezdéd, Kenézlő and Kolozsvár-Zápolya utca. As concerns the relics of these cemeteries, these contain the finest of the time of conquest

: belts with rich mountings, sabretache plates, pierced and lamellated disks, adorned sabres, bows, etc. On the basis of studies by György Győrffy the view is gaining ground that this rich stratum of relics can be brought into connections with the Kabars. In our opinion, this material is characteristic of our Kabar and Turkish tribes of their fragments. Ill Group two Our relics from the time of the conquest include a group in which certain features of these two family systems occur together. Burials of this group show the characteristics of the patrilinear joint-family pattern: it is always the men who are ranking highest in the joint family. The wife of the most distinguished man has a higher status than the other women, but the costliness of her garments and jewels is always below that of her husband's apparel and equipment. At the same time, the graves of the other women in this group contain those kinds of jewels that are characteristic of the so-called comoners, cemeteries, i.e. plain and twisted rings, S-ended lock-rings, fingerrings of wire and strap, fingerrings twisted of several wires, various bracelets, torques, etc. Graves of men contain swords, sabres, bows, quivers, horse-bones, etc. The character of these burials or cemeteries can be determined fairly accurately even if the number of graves is small. Needless to say, the joint-family systems in the various cemeteries may differ considerably. Despite the fact that these cemeteries are few, and their regional occurrence may be accidental, it is certainly not by chance that they are so frequent in the region of the rivers Tisza, Maros and Körös. These are in all probability the cemeteries of one single tribe (tribe of Ajtony?). Among the cemeteries of this group found east of the Tisza we were able to determine the joint-family structure only in the cemetery of Hódmezővásárhely-Szakáihát. We relate the cemeteries of the second group to the tribes of Turkish culture among the conquering Magyars. Gyula Németh maintains that five of the seven Magyar tribes had names of Turkish origin (Jenő, Kürtgyarmat, Tarján, Kér and Keszi). So the archeological relics reflect the fact this group belonged to the Seven Magyars, the alliance of the seven Magyar tribes; also that the long co-existence with the Turkish peoples (for three years by Constantinus Porphyrogenitus), which may been several hundred years, brought a lasting change in the family system. By way of conclusion, let us draw a parallel between the social categories of Béla Szőke and the tribal-ethnic characteristics in our relics of the conquest. The matrilinear joint-family structure is to be found in the cemeteries which were classified by B. Szőke as belonging to the third group of the commoners' cemeteries. The material of our tribes of Turkish culture is to be found in the first and second group of the commoners' cemeteries divided by B. Szőke into three groups. Our middle and leading strate originated mostly from the Kabar and Turkish tribes. 178